


Heroes

by Kitty_KatAllie



Series: What's It Like [7]
Category: Eyeshield 21, Eyeshield 21 x MCU
Genre: but it a pretty good foundation for something, i'm kinda thinking there might be another entry for this maybe to finish off the sinister six, no romance so sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 12:10:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7639675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitty_KatAllie/pseuds/Kitty_KatAllie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sitting at that table isn’t an end, [...] It’s just a beginning. This way… you won’t be trying alone anymore[.]"</p><p>“I… I would like it… having friends[.]"</p><p>“I’ll be your friend[].”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> What if they were superheroes? (Mostly MCU movie verse, sometime after 'Age of Ultron')

It didn’t matter that he’d earned this. It didn’t matter he’d worked hard, almost day and night, to make the grades to make the cut. That his application had been filled with volunteer projects and extracurricular activities and steady, never failing grades since high school. All while dealing with… _everything_.

No, none of it mattered. Because when he walked into the lab, eyes wide and mouth falling open, to gaze around at the hovering 3D screens and LCD-lit tablets as thin and transparent as glass, at the white board in the corner covered in equations that made his eyes spin, and a table cluttered with neatly-piled and filed papers, all his classmates turned and… their faces fell into lines of disgust and disbelief. He knew what was going through their heads as he trudged towards the last remaining seat, battered shoulder-bag thumping bruises into his hip, faded, baggy clothes rustling, the ID badge twisted and facing the wrong way. It went through everyone’s head whenever they saw him.

That he didn’t honestly belong here with the elite. That he wasn’t enough, he would never be the legacy his parents were. That only his name, still revered among top scientists of the field, opened doors he shouldn’t darken.

Part of him agreed, of course. _He_ had actually known his parents, after all. He knew what he was measured up against, and how much he failed to do so.

But… His fingers touched his breast pocket as he sunk into his seat at last with a small, weary sigh. He’d made them a promise, and he made one to his uncle, too.

The door opened again, and instead of disgust or confusion, every face lit up in excitement. His own heart was palpitating wildly as _she_ entered.

Kind blue eyes framed by short auburn hair in a prettier face. Her lab coat was clean, but wrinkled and disheveled. Large, heavy, blue frames slipped down her nose, which she absently pushed back up as she stood in front of the small group of chairs occupied by a group of college students from all over the country.

“Welcome to Stark Tower, everyone! As I’m sure you know, I’m Doctor Mamori Banner. For the next four weeks, you’ll be studying exclusively under my tutelage. Don’t worry, we won’t be playing with gamma rays,” she giggled, glasses slipping again.

Students blinked, but he snorted behind his hand.

Blue eyes pierced him, Dr. Banner's pretty mouth curving up.

“Aha! I found the one with a sense of humor! You are…”

He sat up straight, cheeks flushing and hands shaking on his knees.

“S-S-sena. Sena Kobayakawa-Parker, Dr. Banner,” Sena barely managed to stutter out, voice whispery and cheeks even redder as her eyes widened.

“Kobayakawa-Parker! I should have guessed, you look the spitting image of your father!” Dr. Banner enthused cheerfully, clapping her hands together. Sena sweated under his scratchy woolen sweater-vest as every other eye threw daggers in his direction.

“Y-You kn-knew my p-parents?” he asked politely, and trying not to seem too eager at the same time. Dr. Banner frowned sadly.

“I’m sorry, I never had the pleasure of meeting them. I’m not quite that old, Mr. Parker,” she teased, eyes glittering.

“K-K-K-P-Parker, ma’am,” he corrected painfully. She blinked. With a slow deep inhale, he tried again, “K-Parker, Dr. Banner, ma’am. My parents both changed their names to Kobayakawa-Parker. Since it’s… s-so long, I shorten it to K-Parker, but I won’t drop my mother’s name completely.” His eyes were on his knees, but his voice was firm.

“I see, that’s quite understandable.” He had to lock up every muscle to keep from flinching at the pity in her voice. “Well, now that we know Mr. K-Parker, let’s get to know everyone shall we? Let’s see, what _did_ I do with that roll sheet?”

Sena jerked, eyes turning to the door. A second later, the door flung open and for the second time that day Sena’s breath caught painfully in his throat.

Dr. Banner was one thing but… but _him_? Sena had thought maybe he’d see him here, it was well known that all the Avengers were in and out of Stark Tower all the time, but he didn’t think he end up _here_. In the _same room_. All 5’10” of him. He looked so much bigger than that, ten feet tall, muscled and broad and oddly graceful with his perfect balance and poise. Shaggy dark hair fell over eyes almost the same shade, long sharp nose and a jawline that made Sena wanna weep over his own round, boyish features.

 _Captain America_. Around Sena, there were gasps and whispers, but he was too busy drinking in every moment, fingers unconsciously touching his breast pocket again.

“Rogers, what are you doing here?” Dr. Banner demanded, hands on her hips. “You know today is my orientation with the intern program!”

“I know.” He nodded his head towards the students. One guy made a strangled cat noise. “However, Stark asked me to stick around and help keep an eye on them. Something about strange, curious kids who think they’re smart being in a building filled with sensitive hardware,” he explained with a shrug. He leaned back against a wall, arms crossed over his chest and eyes sweeping over the group of about 10 nineteen to twenty-one-year-olds.

 _Should we be offended by that?_ Sena wondered incredulously. Then, Captain America’s eyes met his. No, ‘met’ was too tame a word. _Bore_ , _pierced,_ _lasered_ , through Sena’s gaze. He shuddered all the way down to his toes and quickly looked away.

A look that like saw too much, and Sena had too much to hide.

“Fine, just… _don’t touch anything_. You’ve been out of that ice for over two years and you _still_ break anything electronic you touch. So just… _stay there_ ,” she warned, thin, delicate-looking finger jabbing at his direction. Captain America snorted and remained in place, stoically unimpressed. Dr. Banner squinted at him, then turned back to the students with a bright, joyful smile.

“Well, then! Time to do those introductions before falling head first into some _science_ , am I right?”

Sena sweatdropped as the other students chuckled weakly. Judging by the look in her eye, Dr. Banner knew exactly how cheesy that was. As she turned to pick up her clipboard, she met Sena’s eye and winked so sly and quick, he wondered if he’d even seen it.

 

Seijuuro, called Steve Rogers by most, and Captain America by others, walked the down the hallway towards his own room early in the morning. It had been just about a week since the Banner Internship on the Study of Genetics and Biochemistry had begun, but Seijuuro had made Stark a promise. He didn’t necessarily like the guy, but when he actually made sense (maybe twice out of 10 times whenever Seijurro tried to listen), he made it a point to actually comply. Within reason.

The current compliance had to deal with these college students. With Stark somewhere in Europe, overseeing the rebuilding of Sokovia—a plan thought up by Ryokan and approved by Rhodes, so Stark had been forced into it— Seijuuro had agreed to supervise the strange newcomers rather than going back to his bleakly empty and lonely apartment. Not that he was _lonely_. That was definitely not one of the reasons he’d agreed so readily.

Captain America wasn’t _lonely_.

As he passed by Banner’s lab, he paused hearing voices from within. F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice was of course the witty, slightly Irish-sounding monotone, but Banner’s seemed… concerned. The fact she was awake so early and in the lab wasn’t exactly strange, but… with the students, it seemed odd that she would have pulled an all-nighter. Which, at this hour of barely 3:30 am, would be the only logical reason for her to be awake already. He tapped his knuckles to the slightly ajar door before stepping in. The startled jump and flash of green eyes had Seijuuro’s eyebrows lifting high.

“Oh, Steve, it’s you,” Banner gasped, a hand over her heart.

“What’s happening? You’re acting unusual,” Seijuuro observed, the slight tightening of his mouth the only betrayal of feeling hearing that name.

“It’s… I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“If you’ll excuse me, but multiple disappearances of electronics from storage, and the strange power fluctuations that have been recorded into my sleep-mode data, are _not_ nothing, Dr. Banners,” Friday interrupted, sounding as offended as a computer program could get. (For a computer program, it pulled off offended very well.)

“Multiple disappearances, you mean _thefts_. From Stark Tower?” Seijuuro demanded incredulously.

“Perhaps the students just borrowed them. I did tell them they could have free rein in certain areas,” Banner protested weakly. “I was just thinking about how I could broach the subject…”

But Seijurro was already shaking his head. “If you don’t know about it, then I would. I’ve been keeping a close eye on them. I haven’t seen any of them playing around with Stark’s toys. What rooms and what are the estimated times of thievery?”

“They are the lower storage rooms, the ones that are kept locked by a code only Mr. Stark or myself know,” Friday clarified, bringing up video screen of the rooms in question. “The times of the breach have approximately been between half past zero-hundred hours to oh-one hundred.”

“Only a thirty minute period? How is it so specific?” Seijuuro asked, glancing over at Banner.

“Friday has security footage on those doors, and during that thirty minutes of time… well,” Banner waved her hand at several screens, all with the timestamp at the bottom of screen, and the same three storage rooms over the course of the past seven days. Abruptly, the screen would fuzz out, only to return to normal minutes later. Always within that single time frame.

“I have attempted several repair protocols, but none have worked,” Friday added.

“It’s not one of the students. Unless they can scale walls. I’ve been walking that hallway every night and none of them leave,” Seijuuro informed, peering closer at the security footage. The screen tipped back away from him.

“Please, sir, remember Mr. Stark’s minimum area of restriction,” the AI warned. It sounded almost like _worry_.

“I’m not going to touch you, Friday,” Seijuuro sighed. Friday hadn’t spoken to him for weeks, immediately shutting down the moment Seijuuro entered a room, after the first time he’d tried to touch on of the thin, glass tablets. It had somehow ended up in tiny pieces in his hands… Then, there was the time he just tried to the use the floating 3D stuff and somehow scrambled the hollow telegramming pixies. Whatever those were.

“Wait, wait, _wait_. You’re _spying_ on my students?” Banner growled irritably.

“No, I’m securing a hallway during the night. It’s what Stark asked of me that I agreed to,” Seijuuro explained absently. “Do you think they might be scaling the walls, Friday?”

“My students are not scaling walls or stealing obsolete electronic equipment!” Banner snapped, throwing her hands up in the air.

“There is some sign of activity along the exterior of the southern fourteenth floor,” Friday related coolly. Banner and Seijuuro both gaped at the computer screen.

“What kind of activity?”

“A few of my exterior motion sensors picked up movement too fast for the human eye. It’s also just outside the range of the camera at all times.”

“As if they know the cameras are there,” Banner muttered, biting into her thumbnail.

Seijuuro frowned. “How can they know? We don’t broadcast them and Stark is too good at covering his tracks.”

“They’d have to be able to sense them. And if they can sense cameras enough to avoid, then… then it’s not a much farther leap to think they might be tampering with cameras downstairs and getting into the storage,” Banner exhaled roughly.

Seijuuro frowned darkly. “I’ve failed Stark. I need to increase vigilance. So far there has been no danger, and the items stolen have not been dangerous, have they?”

“No, no of course not! They’re small almost unusable items. Old, malfunctioning robotic paraphernalia, but mostly prototypes of Youichi’s computer systems. Flat and LED screens, circuitry and so on. It’s why I didn’t think my students were doing it. We’re a biochemistry and genetics internship, not _robotics_ or engineering!”

“I need to rest for a few hours. Friday, keep an eye on the students at all times. Use Stark’s suspicious activity protocols and alert Banner or myself on our personal communication devices. …Banner…” Seijuuro trailed off and thrust out his arm. She blinked rapidly at him, and then rolled her eyes with a huff.

A second later, she’d securely fastened the communication watch around his wrist and set her own earpiece in her ear.

“Friday and I can handle a simple thief, Steve. Don’t force yourself to work on minimum sleep.”

“I know my limitations, Dr. Banner,” Seijuuro retorted almost too quickly. She gazed at him, eyes slightly wide and surprised. He looked quickly away to hide the flicker of guilt. “Call in anyone free and able to come in. This may escalate if we can’t identify and contain the culprit quickly. Friday, try to narrow in on where the outside breach begins and ends.”

“Of course, Captain. Rest well.”

Seijuuro’s lip twitched. “Thank you, Friday.”

“I’ll call in a few more pairs of eyes now, before my apparently nefariously-minded students are up and walking the halls where we _can_ see them,” Banner conceded with a small sigh, phone already in her hand and thumbs swiping over buttons without even looking.

Seijuuro nodded and then headed out. He didn’t need as much sleep as the average human, not with the serum in his body making him a Super Soldier, but it didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate it just as much. But… maybe just one more walk-by…

He turned down the hallway again, instead of heading straight to the elevators. In the interests of privacy, the guest rooms did not have cameras inside (usually), nor were there invasive surveillance equipment set along the corridor- no heat sensors, or motion sensors, or microphones. Not that Stark hadn’t wanted to, especially when he’d agreed to allow the students to intern in the Tower. However, Dr. Banner had put her foot down, calling him a paranoid jackass among many others. Boy, was Stark going to love rubbing Banner’s face in this when he got back. So, while he couldn’t count on any help from Friday, it didn’t mean he couldn’t help _himself_. Super strength, super speed, all that jazz as they used to say back home, he had all that. But he also had a pretty good set of ears these days.

Taking the hallway even slower than usual, perfectly balanced to make as little noise as possible, Seijuuro cocked his head outside each door. Most were still sleeping soundly, the sound of even, steady heartbeats in his ears. At the very end, as his shoulders began to slump and his eyes droop, there was silence.

Feet stopped dead and his eyes turned to the door. He twisted to re-count each door until his eyes fell on the door again. It shouldn’t be… empty… Eyebrows crashed down into a scowl, foot rising- a clattering noise came from within, followed by the sound of a too-rapid heartbeat. Small pants and gasps of pain, muttered words Seijuuro couldn’t quite make out. _What’s going on in there_? Seijuuro wondered, suspicion increasing. Firm and resolute, Seijuuro stepped and knocked loudly.

Silence reigned, broken only by the muffled, rabbit-fast heartbeat on the other side. A low word, sharp and consonant heavy by the sound of it, snapped from inside. The sound of scrambling and the door opened just barely enough for a brown eye to peek out and blink sluggishly.

“… Kobayakawa-Parker,” Seijuuro said aloud in realization. The brown eye widened, pupil dilating, heartbeat staccato, as the boy squeaked in shock.

“Y-You kn-know m-my n-n-n-name?!” he squawked, breathless and… awed? Not terrified? There were no signs of fear or guilt on him, only… amazement and _weariness_. A weariness Seijuuro knew too well. Those dull eyes and purple bags ringing them in a too-pale-grey face looked entirely too much like his own.

Did Seijuuro trust this boy more or less because of that?

“I heard a commotion,” Seijuuro grunted. The brown eyes blinked and a weak, tired chuckle escaped the college student.

“Yeah, uh, I have insomnia, actually. I tend to distract myself with work. I’m sorry if I bothered you, Mr. Captain America, sir,” Kobayakawa-Parker replied awkwardly. Surprisingly, he didn’t show any signs of lying that Seijuuro had trained himself to notice.

“No need to be so formal. Just Ro… Just Captain,” Seijuuro told him, startling himself, though he kept his expression carefully blank. The idea of this young boy calling him Rogers… it left a bad taste in his mouth. ‘Steve’ would only be worse.

The door cracked open a little wider, exposing the red terry-cloth robe- courtesy of Stark in every guest room, the ostentatious egomaniac- and more of the grey, pale face. The small mouth parted, inhaling sharp and swift, as the student gaped dumbfounded.

“K-Kay. C-Captain,” he stammered. “I… I’m g-gonna t-try and sleep a little more, if I… c-could…?”

Seijuuro stood up straight and jerked a nod. “Be careful with yourself, Kobayakawa-Parker.”

A bright, happy smile lit up that exhausted face. “Thanks! You’re the only one who says my whole name like that, you know. So, uh, thanks for that, too. See you sometime later, I bet.”

The door closed and Seijuuro stood there, just as dumbfounded as the boy had been.

He hadn’t responded to a smile in this way in a long time. Not since… Not since Peggy- He broke off his reverie and stomped towards the elevators. Kobayakawa-Parker was not the only one hoping for a few hours of shut-eye before the day started.

 

On the other side of his door, Sena leaned against the cool wood and let his head fall back with a quiet thud. His dark eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling, heart pounding and guilt wearing him down. Had he actually lied? No, not really. But even this omission, the half-truths he looked Captain America in the eye and said, was killing him. Even saying the same to Dr. Banner wouldn’t have hurt so much.

There was too much at stake, though. This was _his_ problem and he couldn’t let anyone know. He winced and hissed through his teeth as he slowly shrugged out of the fancy robe he’d barely been able to fling on. Underneath, he wore only a pair of skimpy short boxer-briefs and a body littered with scrapes and bruises and burns. Trembling fingers brushed the newest bruise, a huge black-and-purple one that almost covered his entire right side. Around his ankle and lower arm large, blotchy welts, the product of electrical burns, shined an angry, painful red.

It was a day for long-sleeves again.

 

Sena chewed his pencil anxiously as Dr. Banner excused herself just an hour into the morning’s first lecture. Considering the topic and her excitement, it was… worrisome indeed. Being situated near the back, and having zero friends, helped him lean a little further back and tilt his head towards the far away door. Just barely, he could hear their voices, minute vibrations disturbing the air.

“ _I know you deserve a break after Sokovia, that you’re still recovering, Riku-_ ”

“ _I am fine. It only a bullet, vrach.”_

 _“Shut up, Riku. Do not be lying with the_ Hulk _. She is knowing your damage. Why you want us to come, Hulk_?”

“ _Please, Mamori is fine, you two. There’s been a slight… problem with security. We’re hoping to have a few more eyes. So far our best suspects are the twenty students in the room behind me._ ”

“ _Students? Children?_ ” the female, heavily accented voice queried.

  _“University students. Adults_ ,” the male replied. The woman emitted a soft ‘ah’. “ _We can be these eyes, vrach. Is simple task.”_

_“Yes, much simple!”_

“ _Thank you, so much. Please, do take care and do not… try not to harm them? I’m sure they don’t mean any harm whoever it is._ ”

“… _they is thief._ ” The two voices said it together, both mirroring the same unimpressed, deadpanned tone. Dr. Banner sighed and came back into the room.

Sena started in his chair and bent over his desk quickly, but his eyes saw nothing as they darted over his notes. Even though gene therapy was of particular interest to him, he couldn’t keep his focus on Dr. Banner. Instead, his eyes kept flicking over to the two inconspicuous figures near the door. Both short and slight in stature, with identical frowns and eyes light-colored even from this angle. The girl, though, had wickedly dancing eyes with long lashes and silky black hair that fell in waves over her shoulders. The boy was darker-skinned, almost tan, with shockingly white hair that spiked up and fell over his forehead to obscure an eye. The whole time, the girl fiddled with something in her hands while the boy’s foot bounced and jigged in place…

Sena could’ve sworn that bouncing foot moved so fast it _blurred_.

 _This just got more complicated. I don’t even know which those ones_ are _!_

 

After that early morning conversation, Seijuuro couldn’t help but search out the young-faced Kobayakawa-Parker. There were a few things he learned within one day’s worth of observation, but he waited another two days to confirm it.

  1. He was quiet, meek, and tended to fade into the background.
  2. He struggled with his assignments more than his peers, but asked better, more insightful questions during discussion. Whenever Banner’s keen gaze caught him fidgeting and frowning, because he almost never actually raised his hand himself.
  3. He had no close confidants or friends. In fact, he seemed generally disliked by the others.
  4. Despite their dislike, he was constantly kind, attentive, and respectful to everyone in the class; often giving up the floor for another speaker, letting them borrow notes or necessary utensils that’d they forgotten or ran out of.
  5. He knew all of their names even though they never spoke to him beyond necessity, and never addressed _him_ by name.
  6. He was a lot cleverer than he let on.



Seijuuro frowned as those keen eyes watched Riku and Suzuna Maximoff warily across the room. The two were sitting close together, whispering in rapid-fire Russian, and eying one of the more pompous students. One of those kinds of kids who were smart _and_ of wealthy family, and therefore thought themselves a gift to the world. Obviously the exact kind of person the Maximoffs would immediately dislike. Suzuna and Riku broke apart a moment later and the young woman of the two sauntered over towards the student, hips swinging and hair sliding over her shoulders. While he was distracted, eyes wide and Adam’s apple bobbing as she leaned close and placed her fingers to his chest, Riku moved. _Moved_ -moved. Quicksilver speed utilized, off his bench and back, all while smirking innocently. Suzuna moved away, winking, and the student moved to follow.

Only to crash to the ground, shoelaces tied together.

Crude, juvenile, and effective. As all the other students burst into laughter, or rushed to help depending on the person, Seijuuro saw the twins discreetly high-five.

Kobayakawa-Parker snorted, eyes glittering with laughter, but he wasn’t looking at the student (who’d taunted and ignored and interrupted the quieter boy often over the past ten days). No, Kobayakawa-Parker was looking _at the twins_.

Could he… Had he _seen_ Quicksilver _move_?

Seijuuro’s dark eyes narrowed on the back of innocent-looking boy’s head.

 

Sena cringed, the all-too familiar chilly tingle rushing down his spine. Subtly, he glanced around the outside dining area and the fancy-schmancy picnic tables. Almost everyone was gathered around Arnold Philmort III, and the twins were snickering behind their cups of steaming coffee. So who…?

He glanced under the fringe of his bangs and blanched, barely keeping his body from cringing. Because _Captain friggin’ America was glaring at him_! Did he think _Sena_ had played that trick on Arnold? He hadn’t been anywhere _near_ Philmort! He shoved a mouthful of sandwich in his mouth, chewing furiously. So busy was he trying to shrink away from that glare, he didn’t notice the other movement towards him.

“This one miss nothing,” joked Riku. Obviously Riku with that accented male voice.

Sena spluttered, choking on turkey and rye and hands tearing his sandwich into pieces.

“This one mess everything, too,” Suzuna teased, flopping onto the bench next to him. “Why are you lonely, Sena Kobayakawa-Parker?” Her strong Russian accent butchered his name, but she was smiling so pleasantly and cheerfully Sena couldn’t help but blush. He squeaked and blushed more as Riku sat on his other side.

Their eerily similar pleasant smiles had chills running up his spine and he was feeling _distinctly_ trapped.

“I-I-I’m not l-lonely,” Sena stammered painfully. Suzuna’s eyebrows hopped up to her hairline. With an obvious swivel of her head, she indicated the exactly zero other students nearby. His shoulders hunched up around his ears as he shrunk further into himself. “I-I’m a l-little sh-shy.”

“I am not believing that is the truth.”

“I am!” Sena objected loudly. Riku smirked as Suzuna giggled. Sena merely pouted at the tattered remains of his sandwich. “W-Well, I _am_.”

“I am thinking it is because they are not liking you. So you keep lonely on purpose,” Suzuna observed astutely. Sena sighed softly and picked at his lunch remains.

“The true question is _why_ are they not liking you? We is knowing your name, and so they must be knowing it, too,” Riku stated, leaning back on his hands and looking upward with an uninterested, bored expression. “How strange that they is not wanting to be friends with famous scientist son.”

“Scientist _s_. Both of my parents were famous,” Sena muttered irritably. He swept his lunch into the paper sack it came from and got to his feet. “And they don’t like me because I’m not half the scientists they were. I’m just _me_.”

Riku and Suzuna watched him walk away, their affected disinterest gone and their eyes grave.

“ **Suspect number one** ,” Riku muttered under his breath in their Sokovian dialect. Suzuna nodded, but her teeth tugged her bottom lip into her mouth.

Some ways behind them, Seijuuro scoffed quietly and went inside. He didn’t actually understand Riku’s words, but he could figure out what they meant easily enough. He’d only spoken aloud what Seijuuro hadn’t been able to bring himself to say.

Sena Kobayakawa-Parker was easily the most suspicious. Keeping to himself, fading to the background, pretending to be stupider than he was—he was trying too hard to hide. The thing was… _what_ was he hiding? Even though logic pointed towards something _rogue_ , Seijuuro still held himself back. There was something about the scientists’ son, something dangerous in a completely different way.

 

After his weird “chat” with the twins- Suzuna and Riku, he reminded himself- Sena had been a little more careful. He knew they were watching him. The thefts of the storage rooms had finally been caught, despite all his efforts to prevent it. It was coming to a decision time and it hurt every single one of his instincts. He had to give up something- his night time activities, or the internship with _Dr. Mamori Banner_. It was everything he’d been wanting, for _years_. It was difficult and frustrating, but _amazing_. He’d never had another experience like it, and dropping out in the middle without a good excuse could seriously damage his future college career, even his _actual_ career.

But stopping his other actions… letting someone else take over before he was done. No, that was impossible.

With Captain America, Quicksilver, _and_ Scarlet Witch on his tail though (yeah, it had taken a few hours of untraceable research via an associate of his, but he’d figured out just who the twins were and their newly-minted aliases), he’d need to finish quickly.

Like _tonight_ kind of quickly.

 

The explosion had the entire Tower shaking. Lights were flashing and alarms ringing. In the storage area, where Seijuuro had taken to going the past week but _still_ hadn’t caught a peek of any nocturnal visitors, the explosion was the loudest. He had to brace himself against the wall as the floor bucked wildly beneath his feet. In his ear, his comm crackled to life.

“ _THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY TOWER, FUCKING JOLLY GREEN?”_ an irate sounding Stark blasted into Seijuuro’s ear. He growled and barely restrained the urge to rip the damn thing from his ear. Pushing himself off the wall, the fully armored Avenger rushed towards the epicenter. Somehow the thief had changed his hit. It was much further in— _in the labs_. Where the discarded or in-process-of-upgrading arc reactors were being stored.

“ _Don’t you shout at me!_ ” Banner snarled, the deep growl of the Hulk slipping into her vocal folds. “ _The burglar escalated past our projected hypothesis-”_

 _“Shut up with your mumbo-jumbo bullshit, Mamori! What the_ fuck _do you mean_ burglar _?_ ”

“I’m already on it-” a blur rushed past him so fast he almost lost his balance again “as is Quicksilver,” Seijuuro interjected before they started their ‘foreplay’ as Hawkeye had teased at the last ‘Assembly.

“ _Damn fucking right you’re already on it, Captain Tightass. Shut it down NOW! I don’t another Sokovia before I’m done cleaning up the first one!_ ” The comm fizzled out as Banner cursed colorfully.

“Dr. Banner, do you need to remain upstairs?” he asked pointedly.

“ _No, damn it, no. I’m on my way down with Scarlet. Keep us updated._ ”

“ _Do not be letting my brother be shot again,_ **_Kapitan_**.”

Seijuuro picked up speed without a reply. Not that it was even necessary, he skidded to a stop beside Quicksilver just inside the labs. Glass glittered like ice on the ground, some of it twisted and melted and still smoking noxiously. Cracks spidered the walls and floors, small and large craters pocking the surfaces. Tables and chairs were in pieces, hollow telegramming projectors now smoldering, warped debris, and Stark’s handful of helperbots dented and sparking where their wires and circuits were exposed.

“Friday?” Seijuuro raised his voice, stepping into the room, Quicksilver next to him.

“I am h-here, s-sir,” Friday sputtered and fuzzed.

“Is the computer break?” Riku asked, bending down to examine the melted glass stuck to the ground.

“N-no, the sp-sp-sp… _kkssshhh_ … the speakers in th-this r-r-r-oom are c-c-c-c-ompromised, s-s-sir,” Friday crackled.

“Please tell me the security foota-”

“A-A-Also c-c-c-compromised, s-sir.”

Quicksilver cursed fluently in Russian-whatever. Behind them came the thundering steps of Banner and Scarlet Witch.

“Oh my God,” Dr. Banner gasped. Her wide blue eyes took in the scene, a hand in front of her mouth. Scarlet Witch narrowed her eyes and red shimmering light wrapped around the pieces of glass Quicksilver was looking at. Wrists and fingers beckoning and twining through the misty red air, she brought the pieces closer.

“What is making glass do _this_?”

“That takes a _lot_ of heat, but there… there isn’t very much fire damage. Just a few spots, over there, and there…” Banner gestured towards the few blackened spots scattered around the room.

“Quicksilver, give the area a sweep,” Seijuuro ordered briskly. The kid rolled his eyes but took off, all three of them flinching when his passing whipped their hair or clothes around them.

“ _Yo, you are coming now. You need to be seeing this_.” Though the words were cryptic, Quicksilver’s tone was bleeding baffled amusement.

The remaining three hurried through the labs, Seijuuro easily jumping over rubble through an enormous hole in the wall. On the other side, the dozen or so of Stark’s vehicles were lined up neatly in their spaces. None of them seemed to be disturbed. Just at the entrance (re: giant hole) Quicksilver stood chuckling into his fist. Seijuuro snapped his head up, following Quicksilver’s gaze.

Above them, knocked out cold, was a chubby, patchy-red-faced man.

Completely encased in…

“Is that… _web_?” Dr. Banner mused, her head tilting to the side in confusion. “It looks like _spider web_.”

“Is that meaning a _giant spider_ is creeping here!?” Scarlet Witch shrieked, hands glowing crimson as she glanced around.

“I doubt a giant spider fights guys that can melt glass and destroy almost indestructible metal,” Seijuuro replied dryly, stepping closer.

The man in the white cocoon grunted and moaned, squirming in his upside down cage. His eyes snapped open and he struggled harder and harder, wiggling like a worm on a hook and eyes flashing bolts of lightning.

“Ohhh, that explains the glass. You’ve been stealing electronics machinery, haven’t you?” Dr. Banner asked, index finger pointing upward and realization lighting up her face.

“ _Get me the fuck down, lady!_ ” growled the man as more blood rushed to his face. For a brief moment, his whole body lit up with tiny, dancing bolts of lightning.

They all stepped back. Scarlet Witch ‘tsk’ed and threw up her hands. A ruby-red aura surrounded him and her hands stroked the air. He gasped wildly, struggling faster, until he collapsed. The crimson faded to expose the limply unconscious man. With a quiet snap, the cocoon’s anchoring thread broke and the whole thing, man included, fell, hard, to the garage floor.

“Well, that was quite anticlimactic,” Dr. Banner said with a sharp clap of her hands. “Riku, the students, if you please. Suzuna, the alarms. Steve, grab the prisoner and come with me to _my_ labs. We need to start up reparations to the labs and the garage once he’s been placed in a secure cell until SHIELD can retrieve him. And call Stark, I suppose,” Dr. Banner sighed, fingertips to her temple.

“I would prefer sweeping the labs.” But he hefted the large man up onto a shoulder with a grunt.

“What we is doing about the giant spider that is not?” Quicksilver asked, already poised to run.

“Stock up on giant flyswatters until we can figure out what it really it,” Dr. Banner quipped with a snicker. The rest deadpanned at her back, unimpressed and unamused.

 

Riku raced through the hallway. Most of the students were milling there, grouped up and whispering and trembling in the pajamas.

All but the one Riku really cared about.

He burst into Sena Kobakayawa-Parker’s room, aqua eyes darting over every corner and surface, body following to check under others.

Sena Kobakayawa-Parker was nowhere to be found.

“The giant spider that is not…?” Riku murmured under his breath questioningly.

 

Sena hissed as Aunt May wrapped the Ace bandage around his waist and torso tightly. Her green eyes flicked up, and her mouth thinned, but she didn’t stop her work or say a word. When she finished with the worst of it, she carefully and gently dabbed at the large electric burns on his body with ointment from the first aid kit.

“Oh, Sena, this is _dangerous_. You could’ve died,” she whispered.

“I have to, Aunt May. You know I-”

She shook her head to cut him off. His voice tapered off and he dropped his head, shoulders slumped.

“There, I’m finished. Must you really go back to that place?”

“It’s _Stark Tower_ , Aunt May! It’s not _that place_ ,” Sena objected, pulling a shirt over his head as he winced and gritted his teeth. She closed the box with a snap, then left her hands lying limply on top.

“Don’t you put yourself through enough? Can’t you just _rest_? A little? This mission you’ve put yourself in, it’s too much for you. You’re barely a man, Sena. Please, the world isn’t your responsibility. I know- knew my husband. He never would have meant this,” she pleaded quietly. Sena bit his lip, fingers curling into fists.

He’d kept his secret for several months before Aunt May found out, but she was the only one in his life who _knew_ him. The only person he could ever trust. When he’d been beaten too badly to help himself, he’d stumbled into the living room after his worst standoff against the Green Goblin. He had put off explaining everything for a couple days while recuperating, but she’d eventually sat him down and _demanded_ an explanation.Aunt May hadn’t looked at him for an entire 48 hours after his teary confession on the truth behind Uncle Ben’s death.  Forty-eight hours of grief and whatever anger she’d had, before she slipped into his room and held him close while they cried together through the night. She’d been his stalwart, his rock, and his nurse ever since, even though after the worst of it, she always did _this_.

“I know the world isn’t my responsibility. I’m just me, but… but New York is,” he replied fiercely and passionately. More passionately than he had felt about anything else in his life, even science.

And like every time, Aunt May got to her feet, kissed his forehead, and cleaned up the mess.

“I’ll be here for you, sweetheart,” she murmured over her shoulder.

Sena nodded, staring at his hands. Gradually, wincing, he twisted enough to dig a set of cards out of his back pocket. Four of them. The first had been sent in a sealed envelope to the _Daily Bugle_. The last two had been handed to him. The first had three claw marks drawn jagged and diagonally across the front. The second a fist of sand. The third, forks of blue lightning. He flicked at the lightning card before finally getting a good look at the fourth. Just what looked like... grey fog. And a single purple question mark in the middle. He frowned and tucked them away out of sight. Then, with a bracing slap to his cheeks, stuffed his feet in his shoes, snagged up his pack, and swung out the window after a quick wrist flick.

 

“The man you handed over is Maxwell Muro. He’s an electrician, an everyday lineman. Some nobody who dropped out of high school when he lost his soccer scholarship into college. Something about a violent altercation and hate crimes, it looks like,” recited Agent Wakana-Hill, eyebrows high and mouth turned down.

“He looks like a little shit,” Hawkeye, a.k.a. Takeru Barton, chirped from over her shoulder. Her shoulders jerked up just before she sent a glare in his direction.

“Continue the missive, Agent,” drawled the nonchalant-sounding Director Fury. His glasses glinted even through the video feed.

“Oh, y-yes, sorry, sir. Won’t happen _again_ , sir,” she snarled, body jerking again. This time, Takeru yelped and fell out of the screen, laughing and groaning. “As I was saying, there was notice made of an accident on the job several months back and then he mysteriously disappeared. Just days after said disappearance, the _Daily Bugle_ , a smaller newspaper office in Brooklyn, started publishing articles about a person called Spiderman, whom was blamed for multiple crimes but later was proven to be committed an unknown man, who called himself Electro. There are a few eye witness accounts of the alarming ways he can control what _looked_ to be lightning, as well as power lines. Spiderman was proven innocent and is still unidentified and at large.”

“If they caught this _Electro_ , what is he doing _here_?” Dr. Banner asked.

“He _wasn’t_ caught. He and Spiderman sustained great injuries and disappeared after some sort of showdown occurred,” Agent Wakana-Hill clarified. “There are not enough details to confirm or deny that Maxwell Muro, whom he have, is the same as this Electro vigilante.”

“I protest the use of _vigilante_. A lot of us Avengers _are_ basically vigilantes,” Barton called out from off screen.

“Unimportant.” Director Fury gestured with his hand as he stood. “What _is_ important is finding this Spiderman. There are a few photos in that same paper of this particular masked crusader. He employs what appears to be the very same substance found in Stark labs. You need to find him and bring him into Avengers’ headquarters for a briefing. We cannot allow vigilantes to be running around the city unchecked and stirring up trouble. Working together is the only feasible way to retain the government’s trust and support of our Initiative. Is that clear?” His bespectacled gaze turned to them, one eye a flashing brown, the other patched.

“Understood,” replied the Avengers currently assembled.

“Good. Barton, contact Romanov. I know she’s enjoying her vacation in France. It needs to end, now. Stark and Rhodes are already en route.”

“Oh-uh, sir, is that necessary? Surely the Sokovian situation is more dire,” Dr. Banner protested weakly.

“No. Potts more than has it handled, along with his own assistant Komusubi, who are both far better liked and trusted than _Iron Man_ , right now. Stark complained more than once that his presence has been unwanted from day one thanks to their continued association with their country being dropped by a robot made by his tech,” Fury informed them, mouth smirking wryly—betraying just how amusing Stark’s discomfort was to him. “Vision is somewhere in the Himalayas, but I can round up the rest. Who knows if this Muro is going to be the last to attack the headquarters? He won’t regain consciousness long enough to say anything. Something about Hawkeye is intimidating him. Which is… _disappointing_.”

“We’ll have our comms on at all times. What threat level, Director?” Seijuuro asked, scowling pensively.

“… Orange. Body armor at all times. For those who need it.” That flashing eye darted to Dr. Banner, smirk widening, before the screens went dark.

“I am having something to say,” Quicksilver said, stepping forward, arms crossed and feet shoulder-width apart.

“Right now, Riku? My lectures are about to begin any minute and last I heard, my students are terrified and _no longer suspects_ ,” she added pointedly, green eyes glowing on Seijuuro’s unrepentant face.

“One still is, _vrech_ ,” Quicksilver disagreed with a headshake.

Seijuuro could feel the name forming as Quicksilver’s mouth moved.

“Sena Kobayakawa-Parker.”

“What? No! How? We _have_ the culprit in SHIELD custody! How could Sena be a suspect?!” Dr. Banner cried, slamming both hands on her desk. The metal dented under her palms. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch shared a look, faces a little pale, before he turned back to Banner.

“He was not… being in his room. When I is doing sweep that _Kapitan_ order,” Quicksilver explained.

“He could’ve just taken a walk outside, or something. They aren’t _prisoners_ and he’s told me himself he has problems with insomnia.”

 _Smarter than he acts,_ Seijuuro acknowledged internally. He ignored the dip of pride in his chest.

“Friday,” Seijuuro grunted.

“Yes, sir?”

“Have any persons walked through any of the exits, or taken the elevators from the fourteenth floor to the first? Or back again for that matter?”

Banner stared over at him helplessly.

“No, sir. Nothing other than the already noted movements of the Avengers, sir. And the usual electronic malfunctions in the lower floors. When it disturbed the laboratory floors, I had no sensor readings to warn me. I noticed the glitch and attempted to reconnect, until the explosion interrupted my attempts and the external impact alarm sounded without my interference.”

“What about the exterior sensors? The ones outside the building that had been noticing movements during the late evening and early morning hours?”

“No, sir, nothing last night or this morning.”

“It would probably be easier to stay inside the building if he knew where this guy would be…” Rogers muttered. “But how?”

“You don’t think… Sena is… _scaling the outside walls_?” Banner gasped, aghast.

“Tonight is inside, maybe. Air… ducks?” Quicksilver mused.

“The air ducts!?” Banner repeated, voice breaking and pitchy at the end.

“A spider is doing these things, yes? And the paper, it talks of a _Spider_ man and he is using web. Can he be the same crawling on walls, too?” Scarlet Witch noted seriously.

“I will search through what available sensors data I have within the correlating air ducts,” Friday informed them.

“S-Sena? He’s a _scientist_. The son of _scientists_. He is quiet and sweet and timid. There’s no way he’s secretly a masked vigilante that spits web from his-his _mouth_ or something!” Banner protested angrily.

“Is that feelings talking, or is it scientist?” Quicksilver inquired adroitly.

Banner ‘tched’ rudely and spun on her heel. The door slammed behind her. The remaining three locked eyes and sighed wearily.

“Captain, sir?” Friday interjected calmly.

“Go ahead,” he muttered, waving a hand.

“There are not enough sensors within the walls themselves to be of much use, but a few did pick up readings of something larger than the average vermin passing through. I followed the traces and found them above the storage corridor before you walked your first round. You will find these pertinent,” Friday narrated, opening a security feed as she spoke.

In the video, instead of the strange fuzzing white-out, something shot over the lens, covering it completely. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch both jerked back in surprise. Seijuuro’s eyes narrowed. A few other feeds opened, all showing the hallway until they were just as abruptly obscured within a few seconds of the first video.

“Wh-what _is_ that being?” Scarlet Witch murmured, fingers brushing the screens. “It is looking like…”

“Web. It looks like more web,” Seijuuro grunted.

“Giant spider must be thinking electric man is going there again. When he not be finding him-”

“He took off after him to the labs,’ Seijuuro finished. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled roughly. "I’ll go get a better look at it myself. Thanks, Friday.”

“Of course, sir.”

 

“Sena, good morning. You’re looking a little peaky,” Dr. Banner said from just beyond his blind spot. He jerked and spun around, hands raising with palms open, fingers splayed. Only the same quick reflexes kept him from spitting web at her. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you!”

“It’s… It’s b-been a long night,” Sena murmured, dropping his hands and ignoring the screaming pain in his torso from his sudden motion.

“And the early morning alarm, too. That couldn’t have helped,” Dr. Banner said sympathetically.

His mouth opened to reply, but he froze. Just lurking in her guileless blue eyes was something… _expectant._ “N-No, I w-wasn’t here for th-that, D-D-Dr. Banner. I l-left at l-least an hour earlier… f-for b-b-bagels. And a w-walk.”

“Your insomnia again, Sena?” Dr. Banner inquired, honestly concerned as that _look_ disappeared.

 _Crisis averted_. “Y-Yeah. P-Pretty bad. N-No one w-was hurt, right?”

“That’s right. Just some of Stark’s toys. After he yells and throws some more stuff around, though, he’ll have fun putting it all back together. Perhaps I should thank those deviants for finding the perfect way to distract him,” Dr. Banner laughed.

“D-Deviants?”

“Not to worry. You focus on today’s assignments, okay? I know you need all the attention you can possibly get for it. I’m also sure you’ll amaze me once you get it done,” she praised, beaming and proud. He ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Th-Thanks, D-Dr. B-Banner. That m-means a lot.”

“I don’t give out unwarranted compliments, Mr. K-Parker. Keep up the good work.”

He watched her go, relief settling his shoulders and curving his spine. The little bit of warmth that bloomed in his chest at her words got him through the next few hours of his day.

 

Mamori sank into her chair behind her desk and dropped her forehead into her hand. Sena had already bent back over his work alone while the rest of the students whispered and muttered amongst themselves. She was proud of all her students’ work, they were all working so hard, even after the events of that morning, but…the blatant ostracizing of one of their own, based solely on their envy of his _name_ , _did_ have her a little more than disappointed. They were supposed to be cultivating camaraderie and partnerships, which they all did so well, except for K-Parker, whom never tried to force his company on anyone and whom everyone else decided not to get to know. It was probably why she had grown to like the kid so much; she had a major soft spot for ‘the underdog’ trope, in literature, movies, _and_ life.

Suzuna sidled up to her and perched on her desk, eyebrow rising. “Well?”

“It didn’t add up. Tell them to do what they will,” Mamori admitted with a sigh, heart breaking as she glanced towards Sena’s downturned face and lonely figure. Suzuna placed her fingers to her earpiece and muttered in low Sokovian. Riku’s voice replied sharp and eager before it fizzled out again.

“At least he is not being the thief, Dr. Banner,” Suzuna tried to console, patting Mamori’s back awkwardly. Mamori couldn’t help but quirk up a smile.

“Thanks, Miss Maximoff. Please, call me Mamori,” she offered, sitting full upright. Her eyes narrowed inquisitively. “How are you doing so far? I was surprised when you refused to return to Sokovia with Youichi, to be honest.”

“I like America. I like hot dogs and soda. I like not being in a little room. I like being _Scarlet Witch_ , as your angry man is calling me,” Suzuna explained, looking down at her hands with a too-nonchalant voice. Mamori frowned in confusion.

“My angry man? Who is… do you mean _Fury_? The Director Fury?” Mamori blurted, pressing her fingertips to her mouth to keep from laughing.

“Yes, the Fury man. Your boss, yes?” Suzuna agreed with a nod.

Mamori looked towards her own paperwork, shuffling it a bit to keep her hands occupied, controlling her need to laugh in an effort not to offend her new friend. “Does that mean you’ll stay here, in New York, with us?” Mamori asked when she’d found her control.

Suzuna waved her hand, fingers beckoning, levitating the few bits of flotsam and decorative jetsam on her desk. Pencil, paperweight, paper clips, spare spectacles floated lazily in a small ring of crimson. Mamori wondered if fiddling with her telekinesis-like powers was the same as Mamori chewing a pen, or wrapping her hair around her finger- an unconsciously-done nervous habit. 

“I am thinking… I am thinking my brother and I will be staying. Sokovia has nothing for us now. Bad memories only linger there. So many dead and there is nothing we can do. America has much chances, not so many dead. No little rooms we cannot leave. Is better here,” Suzuna murmured quietly, _sincerely_ , her words heavy with emotions Mamori could never truly understand.

Smiling softly, Mamori laid her hands over Suzuna’s, ignoring the prickle of red awareness on her skin. Suzuna glanced up, startled by the easy comfort.

“You are always welcome here. And if you get tired of being Stark’s roommate, I can help you find your own place out there.”

“W-What if…” Suzuna licked her dry lips and lowered her eyes. “What if I am not wanting to be Scarlet Witch? After a year, or two, or ten?”

“If you leave the Avengers _tomorrow_ , you will still be welcome wherever I am. I would like to think we’re friends, or at least on our way there, Miss Maximoff.”

Suzuna blinked and then slowly, brightly, smiled. “Yes, Dr. Banner, _Mamori_ , I am wanting this, too. We are friends. You may be calling me Suzuna, if you is wishing.”

“That’s fantastic, _Suzuna_.”

 

Riku chewed a minty toothpick, hands shoved deep in his pockets, as Rogers checked his hand-drawn map and then stared around them. Riku knew, _objectively_ , that the man had just spent a couple decades trapped in an iceberg or something, but still. Shouldn’t he be able to grasp the basic concept of google? Using cell phones? With a shrug to himself, the Sokovian expat patiently waited for Rogers to re-orient himself. A few minutes later, they were finally at the offices of the _Daily Bugle_. Inside the Brooklyn newspaper office was just as grey as it was outside, with bleak, tiny cubicles, weary-faced men and women in office casual, and mugs of coffee by every computer (which looked about twenty years old. Even Sokovia had better, newer models than some of these). They made their way towards the walled and doored office in the back. Every pair of eye turned towards them curiously, reminding Riku that they were in a room full of _reporters_. Sure enough, a few of them were already mouthing Rogers’ name and blushing tomato-red.

The back of Rogers’ knuckles tapped the frosted, bubbled glass panel in the door. In neat, though faded, bronze lettering read **J. Jonah Jameson.**

“What is it? Don’t just stand there with your thumbs in your asses, get in here!” snapped a raspy, deep-voiced man from the other side. Rogers’ brows contracted low over his nose, face thunderous with annoyance, but Riku merely smirked. The image the propaganda made of Captain America—bleeding red, white, and blue, spouting optimism, and pissing freedom—wasn’t half so much fun as the real one—growly, angry, scowly robot-man that he was. They pushed their way into the office, the door creaking and sticking. “ _Well_?” the man grunted; an older man with silver hair and perfectly groomed mustache in an ungroomed, coffee-stained white button-up with slackened red tie.

“We’re here about the pictures you have of the Spiderman in your newspaper,” Rogers grunted, equally as irritable.

“Ha,” barked Mr. Jameson. “You and everyone else knocking on my door. You can _forget_ it. I hate the Tarzen-swinging menace, but my sales have been skyrocketing. I ain’t givin’ you the name of the photographer, so turn your uptight asses around and _out_.” He pulled out a cigar from a wooden box on his desk and went through the exacting process of lighting it up.

Riku curled his lip distastefully. Even as… _superhuman_ as he was, smoke could still mess with his lungs and he _liked_ running, it was his friggin’ livelihood. He could not tolerate even the smell of smoke, especially of heavy _cigar_ smoke.

“I don’t want to steal your photographer. I just need to talk to him,” Rogers growled, eyes flashing.

Jameson squinted, puffing around his stogie, before slowly lowering it from his mouth. Holding it expertly between his two fingers, he jabbed them in Rogers’ direction. “Don’t I know you, Mr. Broody? I’m good with faces and I _know_ yours.”

“It doesn’t matter. Just tell me the photographer’s name.”

“How many times do I gotta say it to get through your cromagnon skull? No. How ‘bout in Spanish? _No_. In Russian? _Nyet_. I know some choice swear words to go with it, if you’d like.”

“If you don’t tell us, I’ll have my associates come here and get it by less than pleasant means than me _asking politely_ for it,” Rogers gritted out.

“You’re threatening _me_ , pretty boy? I’ve had a lot worse from a lot worse’n you. Get outta my office unless you bring in boys in blue and a warrant. What do you even want with a stupid part-timer with a lucky, quickdraw shutter finger anyhow?” he snorted and leaned back in his creaking chair, cigar clamped between his teeth.

“Part time?” Riku queried, laying on his accent extra thick and putting on his most guilelessly confused expression. Rogers leveled a look on him, but Jameson merely chortled around his stogie.

“Got ourselves a FOB? A part timer, kid, means he only comes in with a picture every now and then, doesn’t clock in. Just gets paid for what he gives me. Stupid kid got himself signed into some smarty-pants internship, something to do with science. I don’t get him—”

Riku barreled out the door while the crusty old man talked, zipping along the cubicles with eyes darting over every nameplate and propping open and closed every drawer. His speed wasn’t even wind rushing past them. Not until he came to a stop back at Jameson’s door, a peeling plastic namecard in hand, and the vacuum in his wake filled with a rush of air that had papers flying and hair mussing.

“He turns down _MIT_ , goes to Columbia instead, and Columbia’s a good school, don’t get me wrong, but he turns down _MIT_ just to stay in this shithole. He talks about how much he’s got responsibilities, but I think it’s his auntie. A little ole lady all alone in Brooklyn is a newspaper article waiting to happen and I bet my last Cuban he knows that. Still, full-ride to MIT, and he sticks around here to follow around a spandex-wearing criminal with delusions of grandeur,” Jameson prattled on, tapping the ash off the end of his cigar and shaking his head.

Leaning against the door jamb, Riku tossed the name plate in the air, watching it flip, and leisurely caught it.

“This is being he, yes?” Riku asked, smirking smugly at Jameson’s gaping mouth, cigar barely sticking to his bottom lip.

“What-how- _when_ \- you’re one of them freaks ain’tcha!?” Jameson spluttered, cussing and jumping up as his cigar fell to his khaki-clad lap. Riku narrowed his eyes, arrogance eclipsed by bitterness.

“Freak? I is hearing this word many times, and I _very_ not like it. Watch your tongue, Mr. Jameson. You is not seeing me before I is rip it out,” he advised with a fake pleasant smile curving his lips while his eyes glinted dangerously.

“You can’t come in here, zipping around and using your _freak_ powers in my office and threaten me! This is America, you Commi bastard,” Jameson bellowed, face apoplectic with rage.

“Just answer the question, is-” Rogers broke off, brown eyes widening when he caught sight of the bold, black type on the bronze-colored plate. “You’re joking. That was _here_?” he demanded, snatching it from Riku’s proffered hand. Riku rolled his eyes.

“No, I am just bringing this with me. Of course I am finding it here. It is being one of two names on one desk. Part timer not be having his _own_ desk, yes? So, when I am seeing _this_ name share with another, I am knowing it is important. No meaning in… ah… the word is being… _coincidence_ , yes? No meaning in coincidence,” Riku explained standing up straight and shoving his hands in his pockets again, grinning ear to ear. He felt like a bloodhound finally catching scent of the fox just barely eluding him. _He felt hungry_ this close to the end of the chase. He always did when he felt like he was winning—a game, a test, a race (never lost those, ever, even before he had full control of his speed).

Rogers stared at the name plate, nostrils flaring and eyes wide, before spinning on his heel and slapping the little plaque on Jameson's desk so hard, cracks splintered the surface.

“ _You will tell me if this is the boy taking pictures of the Spiderman, Mr. Jameson_ ,” Rogers seethed, his voice containing a sub-vocal roar that even had Riku shivering in his boots.

“Y-Yes, okay? _Yeah_ , it’s K-Parker. He’s been chasing after this guy since high school. He’s the best in the business and he’s _my_ contact, don’t think you can scout him out from under me,” Jameson conceded, sweat dripping down his temple even as he gathered up what was left of his bravado.

“We don’t need a photographer, Jameson. We need the Spiderman,” Rogers snapped coolly. He turned back towards the door and Riku jumped to attention, saluting cheekily.

“Back to the Tower, _Kapitan_?”

“Stop being a showoff.”

Riku guffawed outright and slapped Rogers’ back. “Do not be asking the impossible, _Kapitan_.”

“Kapitan? _Captain?_ ” Jameson exhaled incredulously. Rogers ran a hand of his face as Riku groaned, neither missing a step or slowing down. Jameson stood in his office doorway, hands braced on each side of the entrance, face flushed red once more. “ _I knew I knew your face_! That’s the motherfuckin’ _Captain America_ , you slackjawed twits.”

“Am I chopped meat?” Riku complained as he hit the elevator button.

“Chopped liver. The expression is chopped liver,” Rogers corrected tersely.

“Is meat, yes? What being the difference?” Riku shrugged.

“Why are you here, Captain America?”

“Who is your associate? Another Avenger, sir?”

“What do you want with Sena Koboyaka-Parker?”

Rogers and Riku stepped into the elevator and Rogers slammed the door close button. “Anyone steps in here, I’ll throw you back out,” he warned dangerously. The crowd of reporters froze, eyes wide and mouths falling open. The doors closed and Rogers slumped back against the back wall.

Riku snorted derisively. “They is being bad reporters. Should not they be knowing their _part timer_ name? Koboyaka. _Tch_.”

“There are too many coincidences around Kobayakawa-Parker. Dr. Banner won’t be able to argue it now.”

Riku nodded, mouth firmly into a thin line. It kinda sucked, he liked the quiet kid (who was his own age, but semantics). But well… if K-Parker was the Spiderman… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, and that’s what everything seemed to be heading to. Riku pictured the timid, quavering little shrimp in his head and forced down the urge to laugh at the image of him spitting webs around and cocooning asshats with lightning skin. But then again… those dark eyes saw a little too much… and Riku had seen and heard for himself a hint of steel in the kid’s voice, seen how aloof and separate he held himself from others.

Yeah, maybe it wasn’t so humorous an image to believe.

“The web is coming from _where_?” Riku muttered.

A strangled, snorting sound had Riku jerking his head around to see Rogers’ face buried in his broad hand, the tip of his ears red. Riku scoffed, lips thinning, until the laughter won, bursting and bubbling out of him in gales of mirth. Together, they laughed, heads tilted back, as the elevator fell the last few floors to the lobby floor.

 

 

 

Lunch was minutes away when he scrambled to put all his work away neatly, stifling yawns and hiding winces. His ribs were still sore and probably cracked. Lying down quietly in his room and letting his body do its thing was a glorious dream that was barely a sandwich away.

Hair on the back of his neck stood up just before a hand fell on his shoulder.

“Good morning, Kobayakawa-Parker. We need to talk,” Captain America rumbled. Sena cringed and grimaced.

“R-Right now?” The Captain’s hand tightened and Sena squeaked. “Okay, right now!”

The rest of the students eyed them warily, some jealously, but walked out the door. Leaving Sena with the four Avengers of Stark Tower, all grim-faced and stern.

“H-Hi?”

“It’s time we talk about your night time activities, Sena K-Parker,” Dr. Banner said from where she sat behind her desk. Her hands were clasped in front of her and her face carefully neutral. Sena felt sweat bead his upper lip and palms.

“Uh… th-that’s a l-little p-personal,” Sena stammered. Riku and Suzuna Maximoff abruptly broke into red-faced snickers. Sena flushed from head to toe as both the Captain and Dr. Banner sighed. “N-Not like _th-that! That’s n-not wh-what I m-m-meant!_ ” Sena exclaimed, hands wildly gesticulating.

“Yes, Sena, I know that’s not what you meant. However, these two are _barely older than children_ , apparently. Forgive them their… immaturities,” Dr. Banner drawled with a pointed look in their direction.

They reined in their laughter so quickly it looked painful.

“Just where were you this morning?” Captain America brusquely demanded. Sena jumped, shoulders rising.

“M-Me? I t-told D-Dr. B-Banner. I went t-to get a b-bagel-”

Dr. Banner made a sharp cutting gesture with her hand. “I am a _very_ intelligent person, Parker. Do not insult me.” Her dropping the informality was as telling as the tone.

“K-Parker,” Sena blurted automatically. He barreled on before he could incur her legendary wrath as well as her insight. “I d-don’t why you’d th-think I’d lie t-to you.”

“Because there is no record of you leaving the building!” Captain America snapped, eyes narrowing. Sena wobbled back on his heels, but kept his shoulder even and his eyes straight ahead. He stood like a soldier, only his clenching fists giving him away.

“Stark is a notoriously paranoid individual, Mr. K-Parker,” Dr. Banner leaned forward on her elbows, fingers interlaced and her chin balanced on top. “He has sensors and cameras on every entrance and exit into Stark Towers. They’re also in every nook and cranny of the laboratories and garage. His cars are as precious as his robots and guns, after all,” she huffed with an eyeroll. “We’ve checked with the building AI. Say hello to Friday, Mr. K-Parker. Go on, right now.”

“… H-Hello?” he ventured, his face twisting up in confusion as his eyes darted around the room.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Kobayakawa-Parker,” spoke a pretty, Irish-accented woman’s voice. He yelped and jumped back onto the balls of his feet, hands splayed at his sides, eyes darting around even faster.

“ _What is that_ \- is that a _computer_?”

“That is much too simple an idea to explain _me_ , Mr. Kobayakawa-Parker. I am a specially designed Artificial Intelligence program, made by and exclusively for the use of one Tony Youichi Stark. The current CEO and head of Stark Industries.”

“Is sounding like bragging to me,” Riku muttered under his breath. He and his sister still looked a little bent out of shape about the immaturity comment.

“You move like one of us,” Captain America grumbled, arms crossed and face scowling. “Vigilant and ready.”

“W-What?”

“ _Mr. Kobayakawa-Parker_ , I said _do not_ insult my intelligence, and I hope you would extend the courtesy to my associates. You are obviously lying. Unless you can turn invisible and walk through walls without _noticing_ , I very much doubt you managed to leave this morning without showing up on sensors and cameras. You will explain yourself to us,” Dr. Banner interjected in a harsh, angry tone.

“I…” Sena gulped, throat constricting. “I… I won’t. S-Sorry?”

They blinked at him. In a sudden motion, Riku threw something right at Sena’s face. His hand reached up to catch it in a movement almost as fast as Riku’s. Yelping, he dropped the item and scrambling back. “Wh-What is-”

“I is grabbing it again before we is leaving,” Riku stated with an uncaring shrug. A flick of a red wrist later, the object skittered over white tile to bump against Sena’s foot.

His own name plaque, from his tiny cubicle that he shared with Liz Allen stared back at him.

 _“Sena, I don’t know what’s going on, but these guys just came here looking for_ you _. Looking for_ Spiderman _, too! They think you can find him,” Liz’s voice whispered urgently over the line. Sena could_ feel _the blood leeching out of his face._

_“You’re sure? For me? Why me?”_

_“Sena, you’re the only one who can get photos of Spiderman. People have coming looking for you since this started, but these guys are different. I think… I think they’re_ them _,” Liz argued, words tumbling over themselves. But in excitement, giddy excitement, rather than fear._

_“Who? Who do you think they are, Liz?”_

_“_ The Avengers! _Sena, I think the Avengers want to recruit Spiderman! He’s going to be a real hero! Finally! Oh, I knew I couldn’t be the only person who believed he could do it. Oh, and you, I guess.”_

_“…thanks, Liz.” Sena chewed his thumbnail, mind already whirring with panic and escape routes. He never should’ve come back, Aunt May was right. No, but if he hadn’t, they would’ve found him there, anyway._

_“…to me… Sena? SENA! Are you listening to me!?” Liz screeched in his ear. He cringed away, holding the cell as far away from his poor abused ear as possible._

_“Yes! I’m listening! I’m sorry!”_

_“Hmph, I guess I’ll forgive you, but only because it’s so amazing I have to tell you! Mr. Jameson just came out_ yelling _at them and they just walked right out. Everyone just went after them but, ooooh, that Captain America, look at that scowl. I think even Martin just pissed himself,” Liz giggled viciously pleased. She and Martin had a long-lasting hater-thon between the two of them. “They know who you are, though, Sena. They’re definitely going to come find you. Don’t faint dead away when it happens and_ tell me everything! _” Liz pleaded eagerly._

_The line went dead._

_Sena slumped against the wall in the bathroom where he’d hidden to take the call. Her name and the length of call on the screen in his hand was the reminder that it indeed had happened. They were going to come find him, and they were going to figure it out. After three damn years of hiding his identity from classmates, villains, and even the fair-weather friend or two, he was going to be found out thanks to an idiot with stripped wires for brains._

_The first instinct was to_ get out _. But there was no way he could leave as Sena Kobayakawa-Parker. And leaving in broad daylight as_ Spiderman _, from the_ Stark Tower _, would be monumentally stupid. Electro had only been in the building to soak up extra power to take_ Spiderman _on. He’d had no idea Spiderman had already been in the building and had caught on before he could soak up enough._

_The slick playing card flipped from finger to finger, over knuckle and under. He had no idea when the next would strike, or where, but his foreboding feeling was only rising. He’d learned long ago to trust his spidey senses._

_With a groan, he shoved the card in his back pocket and walked over to the mirror and connected sink counter. Brown eyes stared glumly into brown eyes._

_No risky moves._

_No running._

_Time to think up some fabulous bullshit._

_Too bad he was a_ terrible _liar._ _He sweated as he grimaced at himself in the mirror. Way to be supportive, Kobayakawa-Parker._

“I was out _finding_ Spiderman! Okay! He told me how to get past undetected, he knew where all the cameras and sensors were, okay? I wasn’t me!” Sena blurted desperately.

“You can’t honestly-”

“I’m not- I’m not like you guys, okay? I’m not gamma radiated, or super soldiered, or… or whatever you guys are, I’m just _me_. Slow, not smart enough, loner, loser Sena Kobayakawa-Parker. I barely make good enough grades to pass _calculus_. You think I scale buildings and beat bad guys in my spare time?” Sena laughed, twitchy and frantically. “Ask anyone, I’m a nobody and always have been. The only amazing thing about me is my parents. And they’re… they’re dead,” he whispered, head dropped and hands listless at his sides.

Dr. Banner, Riku, and Suzuna exchanged confused glances, their veneers breaking. But Captain America? His dark eyes were still fixed on Sena’s body, scowl darker and muscles almost bulging with tension.

“I try to help Spiderman out a bit, okay? I keep an ear to the ground, give heads up, whatever, and in exchange, I get pictures to put in the paper. It’s… it’s symbiotic, okay? I just got lucky cuz I caught him on my camera once and… and I helped him clear his name when he first came on the scene. I’m like a Robin to his Batman,” Sena finished, clearing his throat and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Your self-deprecation will be addressed at a later time, Sena,” Dr. Banner replied softly. He flinched. Sena actually had come a long way _not_ believing all that crap about himself anymore; being Spiderman had helped a lot. Her genuine kindness was a guilty dagger through the heart. “However, perhaps we jumped to conclusions too quickly?”

Riku frowned and Suzuna chomped her thumbnail. Captain America _snorted_. Derisive, unimpressed, and irritated.

“No. He’s the one. I know he is. You saw him catch the name card. He dropped it quickly enough, but he _caught_ it. No way a normal everyday human could do that,” Captain America reminded them. Sena sweated.

 _Stupid spidey reflexes_.

“I- uh- um- blind luck?” Sena tried. Dr. Banner opened her mouth…

Only for the wall to their left to collapse inward while simultaneously an explosion rocked below their feet.

“ _Not again! Stark is going to kill me!_ ” Dr. Banner roared in annoyance. “Quicksilver, the students!”

“ON IT!”

Suzuna was already standing in the middle of the room, eyes glowing as crimson as the beautifully twining energy wrapping around her body. Her hands glowed so brightly they were white, but the building’s shaking stabilized into tiny tremors.

“I can… not… holding long,” Scarlet Witch gasped, face slowly blanching.

“Oh, this won’t be long,” retorted a deep, suave voice. _Floating_ just outside the window, landing light as a feather with purple cloak settling _majestically_ around him, stood the oddest looking bad guy Sena had ever seen.

And he’d faced off against friggin’ _Kraven Gaou_ the Hunter! The dude literally looked like an evil, Tarzen ripoff in downtown _Manhattan_.

But this dude? Oh, yeah, he won _all_ the weirdo award. Scaly green suit, purple cloak, shiny boots, and, to top it off, a giant opaque globe over his head. Like a friggin astronaut or something.

“You are either the _stupidest_ man alive, or someone with a fondness for a jail cell,” Dr. Banner growled, eyes glowing green as she walked around the desk.

“Oh, please, Dr. Banner, I’m not here for you. And honestly, I am the last thing you should be worried about. You really think my little henchman was only here to suck the currents out of old, busted robots? Tell them, magic girl, just what it is you’re holding up,” the newcomer gestured with a sweeping hand, nonchalant and self-assured.

“E-E-Everything. The T-Tower is… falling,” she hissed, sweat pouring down her grey face.

“Mhm, indeed. There are still a few more charges left in place. I suggest you find them, Doctor, or it’ll be too much for your poor friend to handle,” the man suggested in amusement. Dr. Banner roared, skin rippling with green as she punched her desk so hard it crumpled into pieces. She ran out the door a second later, barely gripping her humanity, which needed her more.

“Oh, and now there’s just Captain America and the brat. The one I hear I need,” he drawled, turning smoothly, his domed-head flashing in the sunlight streaming through the gaping hole in the wall behind him. Captain America snarled. “Temper, temper. I thought only the Hulk had such Herculean issues?”

“Wh-what d-do you n-need _m-me_ for?” Sena stuttered, stepping close to Captain America’s side in the vain hope it would keep him calm. Body armor he might have, but his shield, he didn’t. And whoever this guy was, Sena was sure there was something up his sleeve. Something very literal and very dangerous. Fog boiled around his feet, leaking from his suit and cloak mysteriously.

“Because you, you insignificant speck, are going to get me Spiderman.”

Sena’s jaw dropped, but in his pocket, the card seemed to burn. _The fog._ He’s _the next one_. “Wh-Who _are_ you?”

“I am Mysterio. It’s my destiny to defeat Spiderman,” the man pronounced.

“For a dude smashing into the _Avengers’_ Tower, you sure are worrying about some brat in spandex from _Brooklyn_. I hear he hangs out there,” piped up a voice from the hole in the wall.

Sena yelped at the new voice, eyes scanning the room. One second, there had been _no one_ , until suddenly there _was_. A dude about Sena’s height in a weird red and grey suit and freaky helmet.

“Yo. I’m not quite an arachnid, I hope an ant’s an okay substitute?” he quipped, waving merrily.

“ _Get OUT of my way! You vile, interfering imbecile!_ ” Mysterio spat, hand lifting to release bright flares. They exploded against the wall where seconds before Ant Man had been standing.

“I need to get him out of here. Sena, _get out of the way_ ,” Captain America ordered.

“Wait, what are you- _oh my god!_ ” Sena shrieked as the Captain dived-bombed Mysterio, sending them both flying out of the gaping hole. “Suzuna! Are you going to be okay!?” Sena exclaimed, spinning around to stare at her.

“Y-yes, m-maybe,” she nodded, eyes closing in concentration.

“Hey, bro,” Ant Man greeted, suddenly next to him.

“ _Holy crap!_ ” Sena shrilled, pinwheeled away.

“What’s the sitch? I came because of a call about petty electric thieving and it’s a party MAX instead,” Ant Man crowed, both thumbs up.

“Uh… Dr. Banner is trying to defuse bombs that are hiding somewhere in the lower building.”

“If th-they… is…boom…I can not…hold,” Scarlet Witch wheezed. The building shook ominously. She screamed and red light burst around her. “GET OUT!”

“Let’s listen to the lady,” Ant Man muttered, grabbing Sena’s arm and dragging him out. “What else is happening?”

“R-Riku, Quicksilver, he’s helping students get out, and Captain America-”

“Yeah, I got that. Where’s this Spiderdude globe-head wants?”

“I d-don’t kn-know,” Sena lied desperately.

“You better get him if you can. It’s his mess after all. I’m gonna go help find those bombs. Get the hell out, civvie!” Ant Man saluted and darting away, disappearing. Now that he wasn’t so shocked, Sena could see him shrink.

“Right… my mess,” Sena muttered. He ran towards his room where his suit was hidden away. “Time to clean it up.”

 

Seijuuro groaned as he sat up. Falling out of the fourteenth window had been fun and all, but the gas to the face that had paralyzed him midair? Oh, not so much. It was wearing off slowly, but too much of his body felt numb.

“Hmm, superhuman indeed. That serum did a lot for you, Steve Seijuuro Rogers,” the jerk in a stupid globe hummed thoughtfully. Seijuuro glared poisonously. _No one knew that name_. How did he know _that name_? Mysterio knelt in front of Seijuuro and held up a hand. A flashing, spiny disc caught Seijuuro’s gaze. No matter how his head screamed to look away, his eyes… _couldn’t_. “I’m going to need you to help me out, big boy. One on one, I may win. But two on one, oh how stacked the odds will be in my favor. You will help me _kill_ Spiderman, Captain America.”

“N-No,” he spat, blood trickling from the corner of his lips.

“How intriguing that you think you can resist hypnosis. Super Soliders don’t get _smarter_ , my friend. Only _bigger_.”

The world went black.

 

Spiderman flipped down into the courtyard in front of Stark Tower. Free, standing tall, and ready, Spiderman was twice the man Sena Kobayakawa-Parker was. There was no fear, no stammer in his speech, no cringing or blushing. The mask made him braver than he’d ever felt and it never failed to do so.

In front of him, Captain America stood awkwardly at Mysterio’s side, eyes weirdly blank and body lax.

“Ah, you’ve come. Much faster than I was expecting, though. I had hoped to cause a bit more destruction first,” Mysterio sighed sadly.

“I think you’ve caused enough. This is between me and you, Mysterio.” The card he held in his hand flung over the open ground between them, sticking into the grass straight up, the fog and question mark exposed.

“That was true. But, well, I come prepared for a true battle. I won’t underestimate you, Spiderman. You should feel complimented,” Mysterio replied with a bloodcurdling chuckle. He snapped and Captain America stepped forward, fists rising.

“What… What did you do to Captain America!?”

“Just one Captain America? You must be mistaken,” Mysterio swept out his cloak and between a blink and the next, three Captain America’s stood identically crouched and blank-faced. “I will defeat you Spiderman, as is my _destiny_!”

“What is it with cheesy villain lines? It’s not destiny, it’s just you being a power-hungry snowglobe! Did you get shaken up too often, or left on the reject shelf, is that what this is about?” Spiderman retorted. He yelped and jumped back and up as a Captain America rushed him. Only to have fists pound into his back. Spiderman choked, spittle wetting the cloth in front of his mouth, and he slammed chest first into cement and grass. “This is going well,” Spiderman muttered. A fist slammed to the ground just as he rolled away. He cursed seeing the lack of impact the hologram made, and another, real, hand grabbed his ankle. With a startled shout, Spiderman was flung through the air.

 _I can’t fight Captain America!_ he thought miserably, web shooting from his wrist to catch himself and swing back around. Both feet slammed into Captain America’s chest, only to slam right through. Another darted at him, which he dodged, straight into the real Captain’s fist. He tumbled ass over teakettle, cheek and nose burning and crunching inside his skull. _Damn it!_

“I’ve got this, kid,” announced a new speaker. “What’s up, fucking tightass?” the voice cackled and all three Captains glanced up, Spiderman just a second behind them. The glaring ruby and gold of Iron Man flashed in his eyes even through the mesh.

Without stopping to even say thanks, Spiderman took off towards Mysterio. With a grunt, he slung web placket after placket towards the green-suited villain.

“Don’t you underestimate me, either!” Gas poured from hidden tubes in his suit, and Spiderman skidded to a stop, grimacing as his web was melted into gooey puddles. It looked kinda like the inside of a burnt marshmallow.

“Eugh, that’s gross!” Spiderman whined.

He darted around the flares Mysterio sent his way, tripping into a somersault as they exploded upon impact behind him. Back on his feet a second later, he shot more web at Mysterio to distract him, coming up behind the melting goop to swing a roundhouse to Mysterio’s face. His eyes widened behind his mask as an arm came up to block. _The hell_ -? He shouted wordlessly as the second arm punched him right in the solar plexus. His butt dragged through dirt and grass and black spots peppered his vision while he gasped airlessly. A large hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him right into the air. A disappointed tsk echoed in the globe.

“This is Spiderman? You’re so much smaller than I thought you’d be. The Doctor ranted so, about your powers and skills, and yet I’m already about to defeat you. Perhaps that haughty eight-legged _bastard_ will be next on my list.”

_D-Doc Oc? He’s behind this?_

“Y-You h-”

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“You h-haven’t d-defeated me y-yet, fi-fishbowl face,” Spiderman choked out.

He pulled his knees up and slammed the soles of his feet into Mysterio’s chest. The hand around his throat was torn away. Without even pausing to replace oxygen, Spiderman leapt after Mysterio. It became a flurry of fists and kicks, Mysterio keeping up and putting in even more blows than him. Spiderman relied more on his senses and reflexes, but this guy had some _major_ experience and teaching. _Crapcrapanddoublecrap_. Mysterio’s palm slammed over Spiderman’s face, blood filling his mouth and pain from his already broken nose making him dizzy. Gas poured into him, through his mouth, his nose, seeping into his eyes and pores. He coughed and choked, wild kick connecting with the armored belly in front of him. Mysterio groaned and fell away, but Spiderman was already wheezing on the ground, body seizing and limbs collapsing under him.

Coughing and choking, fingers dug into grass, pulling and dragging him forward. His breath was gasping, filming his mask with humid damp. A boot pressing quick and hard to his spine, forcing him down on his belly and even more air out of his struggling lungs. A foot had stopped him cold.

“How does it feel, Spiderman? The paralyzing agent in your blood? Captain America fought it off almost immediately, but you? You’re nothing but a bug. A nothing. You think you’re a hero because you have a few fancy little tricks? Don’t be pathetic,” Mysterio whispered over Spiderman’s ear.

His eyes closed tight, tears gathering unseen. A nothing. Pathetic. _Nothing_.

No. No, he wasn’t nothing. He _wasn’t_. Sena… Sena was a nobody. But not Spiderman.

With a pained scream, Spiderman braced his palms to the ground and _pushed_. Mysterio threw his whole weight behind his leg, driving him back down, but he gritted his teeth and, with trembling, burning arms, _pushed harder_. He was on his knees at last, Mysterio stumbling back just outside his peripheral vision. Web after web flung at him, catching him while off balance. An arm stuck to his torso, a foot pinned to the ground, web coating every inch of the stupid globe.

“You stupid villains and your _cliché crap_!” Spiderman yelled, forcing himself to dart forward. A fist slammed into Mysterio’s sternum, the resulting groan echoing in glass. A knee followed it to the diaphragm. Spittle sprayed the inside the fishbowl. “You think- you can all say- the same _crap_ \- and it’ll work?” Spiderman shouted, fist after knee after fist pounding into every inch he could get to.

He wrapped his hand into the cloak to flip him over a shoulder, a wrestling move Flash Gordon had taught him (by the wrong end of experience, but, eh, semantics). Instead of finishing him, Spiderman screamed, body convulsing and tightening all over as bolts of electricity surged through him. He fell to the ground, curled up and gasping painfully.

“Fine. No more monologuing,” Mysterio hissed, spraying blood over glass. “Fuck.”

A heavy boot slammed into Spiderman’s already cracked and aching ribs. Another short scream escaped him. With vicious glee, Mysterio kicked and kicked and began to cackle hysterically.

“I’m going to squash you, squash you like the bug you are, _Spiderman_. You’re dead, dead, and I’ve won.” He snarled as Spiderman’s hands wrapped around his legs, grip weak and trembling. “You’ve _lost_ , you brat.”

“N-Not y-yet,” he wheezed, his vision going black and his bones grating inside his chest. “ _Not yet_.”

He twisted with the last of his strength. Mysterio fell to his back with an outraged bellow. Screaming through pain and the bolt of electricity that surged up his arms, Spiderman dragged himself up Mysterio’s body and slammed his fist through glass.

“I-Impossi-”

The denial ended when Spiderman’s fist smashed into his astonished face.

“Not. Yet.”

Spiderman rolled off and onto his back. His chest heaved and tears streamed under his mask, soaking his hair, as his broken ribs tore into his soft, unprotected insides.

“Spiderman!” the voice was kind, urgent, and distant. At the end of a tunnel and through water.

“Wait, Mamori. It’s his fucking ribs. Don’t touch him. Friday, I need a stretcher _yesterday_. What do you mean all my robots are broken? ARE YOU SHITTING ME?”

“I is going!” Air rushed over him, and even through the spandex Spiderman felt it.

“Spiderman, hold on, we’ll help you.”

“S’kay… just… rest…” he whispered.

His world went black.

 

 He woke again and it was a little hard to breathe. Like, cracked, tightly bound ribs and mask over his face kinda hard. Nothing too unusual, really. Until he realized just why it should be. He sat up so fast blood rushed from his head and a pained cry left him.

Large, warm hands pushed him slowly, but firmly back down.

“No one here will harm you, Spiderman. You’re safe,” Captain America murmured. It was the kindest, softest he’d ever sounded.

It made Sena even more uneasy.

“I have to g-go,” Sena stammered, cringing at it. He wasn’t in the mask anymore, even if he still wore it. After a battle, his defenses fell and keeping up that bravado, that Spiderman persona, was hard when he was physically at his weakest.

“You’re not going anywhere for a while. You're healing is exponentially faster than the average human, but the injuries were severe enough that you can’t just swing away willy-nilly,” Dr. Banner told him sternly.

“Willy-nilly, Jolly Green? Fucking _willy-nilly_? What are you, sixty and living with cats?”

“Shut up, Youichi!”

“Yo, bro, you took a beating ten times over and you still managed to beat the MAX outta fishbowl head. That was great, by the way. 8 outta 10 witty banter," Ant Man joked proudly.

Sena sweatdropped under his mask.

“Is you not taking off mask now, Spiderman? _Vrech_ is saying you must and we must be waiting for you. I am sick of it,” Scarlet Witch, Suzuna, grumbled. He could hear her toe tapping on the linoleum.

“We is all knowing who you are. You think we, _we_ , will be hurting you if we know true name, Spiderman?” Quicksilver asked, obviously offended and annoyed.

“No,” he whispered. “But… only… only one person knows. And I can’t have her… I can’t have her get in trouble. I can’t. I’ve already ruined so much of her life…”

“Look, brat, kid, under-roo, whatever. We all have people whose life we fucked up. People we… love. Some have even died. You aren’t the only special snowflake with a tragic fucking backstory. Nut up and take off the mask so fucking Cyclops can come recruit you,” Youichi, _Stark, Iron friggin’ Man_ , said, words sharp and cutting, but his tone vulnerable a fleeting second when it mattered.

Gulping painfully, he reached up with naked fingers. Slowly, carefully, he rolled up the mask and let it fall into his lap, twisting it between his hands.

Suzuna and Mamori smiled happily, Riku smirking with only his eyes showing how pleased he was. Next to him had to be Ant Man, with his giant eyes and snub nose. He was rubbing said nose with one finger and grinning.

“Welcome to the Dream Team, Spiderdude.”

Captain America’s intense stare had shivers running down Sena’s spine. Something pleased and proud that had Sena quaking and blushing. He quickly turned to see Stark leaning against the machine beeping away Sena’s vitals, gum bubble cracking.

“Great. I’m done playing nurse. Rhodey’s coming in any second and I gotta go lock him outta my labs before he can fucking pester me about my hella secret speed upgrade. He thinks because he’s got War Machine I’m gonna play fucking fair.” He turned on his heel and sauntered away, kekekekeing as he went. Dr. Banner paled considerably.

“Oh dear. I better go head off the explosion,” she whispered.

“Hey, just blame it on the actual explosion!” Ant Man called after her. He turned back to Sena. “I’m Scott Raimon Taro.”

“Rai… Monta…ro?” Sena repeated in confusion. Ant Man scowled.

“Not Monta! It’s-”

“Oh, I am liking it! Monta. Much easy!” Suzuna exclaimed. Monta glanced over at her and sighed.

“Well, I can’t argue with a cute lady.”

“I’m Sena. Sena Kobayakawa-Parker. And I’m Spiderman,” Sena murmured.

They stared at him a long moment, then Monta slapped his back. _Hard._ Sena ‘guh’ed and coughed to re-breathe.

“All righty then. I better go back. Send me a message when Fury calls the meeting in. I can’t wait to see how he acts around everyone else.”

“E-Everyone else?” Sena spluttered.

“Yes, you are to meeting the Avengers. All the Avengers. I is hearing even Thor is being back!” Suzuna explained.

“No worries. You is beat your bad guy. You can be facing the good ones,” Riku promised with a wink. “Rest down.”

“Dude, rest _up_.”

“Why rest up? Resting is being lying down,” Riku objected, baffled.

“Get out so he can rest,” Captain America snapped. There was sputters of indignation and an obscene hand gesture from Riku, but they did leave. Dark eyes pinned Sena like a bug to his bed. “Don’t you try to leave.”

“I… I d-don’t want t-to. It’s just…my aunt…” Sena said haltingly. The Captain’s gaze was softer and warmer the moment ‘aunt’ passed Sena’s lips.

“I’ll bring your things here. You can call her. _After_ you sleep more. The morphine should kick in again soon.”

“M-Morphine? Th-that d-doesn’t-” _yawn_ “w-work on m-me.”

For a brief moment, Sena _swore_ he saw a smile. “This will. Sleep well.”

There wasn’t enough time to reply. He was out cold and drooling by the time the Captain said ‘sleep’.

 

A week later, Sena trembled and quivered in his place between Riku and Dr. Banner. Banner patted his shoulder comfortingly, but he just felt _more_ like a kid. A kid about to meet his _heroes_ and be told he’d be one of them. There was…There were no words that could help. The door just ahead of the Captain slid open soundlessly. One by one, they trooped in and took their places at a huge round table. Like friggin’ Knights of the Round Table, with the one-eyed and bespectacled Director as their King Arthur. Or maybe Captain America was. Even with his surly face, everyone seemed to defer to him, nodding with respect and trust. Sena had never seen the Captain like this. Looking sure and calm, body looser and features relaxed. He made sure to go around the table, shaking hands or being back-patted, murmuring questions about family members, or vacations, or missions. He was attentive and inspiring without even cracking a smile. It was… amazing.

Imagine what the smile would have done. The guy could conquer the world with a weapon that devastating.

“Parker.”

Sena snapped to attention with Fury said his name. “K-Parker,” he corrected automatically. And immediately blushed red.

“Ah, I like this one. Don’t you like this one, Karin? Still so young and innocent,” one man teased, nudging the beautiful blonde woman next to him.

“Don’t scare him off before he realizes the rest of us aren’t as crazy as you,” she sighed. Her pretty brown eyes met his and she smiled sweetly.

“K-Parker it is, then,” Fury acquiesced. He and Sena were the only ones left standing, both on opposite sides of the table. “Let me make introductions where necessary. You’ve met Stark, Banner, the Maximoffs, and Taro, correct?” he confirmed, waving a hand at each name. Banner, the Maximoffs, and Monta waved. Stark merely lifted an eyebrow, propped his feet on the table, and popped a bubble. “And, of course, Rogers.”

“Y-yes.”

“Here besides me are Agents Maria Wakana-Hill and Yuki Coulson.” The man and woman smiled happily and cheerfully, putting Sena a little more at ease. “Then, next to Coulson, that’s Takeru Barton. His codename is Hawkeye. Codename Black Widow, also known as Karin Romanov among friends, sits beside him.”

Sena paled at he glanced at Karin’s sweet face. He knew the name Black Widow well. Who knew such an innocent face could hide the _best assassin in the friggin’ world_?

“The massive man playing with the hammer is Thor,” Fury continued, tone dry. The huge black man waved frevently, teeth gleaming white and shiny in his dark face. He looked pleasant and jovial for a _lightning Norse god!_ Sena quivered.

“I do not require a codename. Only Thor!” he boomed, following his proclamation with a _boomier_ laugh.

“And last but not least, codename Falcon-”

“But friends call me Sam, Sam Juumonji,” interjected the man that sat closest to Captain America. He had a cross on his cheek, a lopsided smirk, and arms crossed over an impressive chest. Captain America met his eye and they exchanged a familiar, identical eyebrow lift.

“I’d hoped you’d meet them earlier, but a _few_ refused to be accommodating.”

Banner and Black Widow both shrugged, unabashed.

“Do you _know_ how much my students paid for their internship applications?”

“Why would I leave France because of Stark’s Tower falling down again? It’s not exactly a surprise these days. _Or_ a critical emergency requiring my expertise.”

“Yeah, it’s not like she can hold the building up with her mind or anything,” Hawkeye winked over at Scarlet Witch, who blushed, hands lighting up just as red.

“Enough,” Fury stated quietly. Everyone fell silent. “Now, the Spiderman has been seen around-”

“Spiderman.”

Leather creaked as everyone turned to stare at Sena. He swallowed painfully.

“It’s just Spiderman. Not _the_ Spiderman.”

“Ah, I see. Well, then, just Spiderman has been seen around quite a bit of New York. Mopping up a few messes before SHIELD can even pick them up, quite a feat.”

“They sorta come after me,” Sena muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Be it as they may, you do a good job. But it’s still a _vigilante_ job. We’re offering you a place, here, in the Avengers’ Initiative. You’ll have some government oversight, but given your age and alter-ego schedule, we’ll try not to draft you into any overseas retcon missions,” Fury’s lips twisted up to one side. Sena blinked.

“You want me. To join. The Avengers,” Sena repeated, choppily. Truthfully, a part of him had expected this big, important guy to take his suit away. Demand he cease and desist and leave the job up to professionals. Instead, he was trying to _legitimize_ Sena’s job. “To be like-like _Captain America_? A real _hero_? I couldn’t- I’m just- I’m just _me_. I have some freaky powers thanks to a creepy genetically-engineered spider bite-”

“OH! Of course!” Dr. Banner exclaimed.

“But I don’t… I don’t save the _world_. I’m lucky if I can protect my borough.”

“Now, Parker, false modesty is very un-”

“ _It’s K-Parker! Kobayakawa-Parker!_ ” Sena shouted, standing so suddenly his chair flung out behind him and clattered to the ground. His palms slapped on the table and his shoulders shook. He couldn’t lift his eyes, couldn’t look up and see them _looking_ at him. His heroes, inspirational and strong and _amazing,_ people he'd looked up to for years! How could he be an equal to them?

“I have to go,” he choked out. He spun around and _ran_. He almost crashed through the automatic doors for not opening fast enough.

“Sena!” Dr. Banner called out, half-rising. She paused when Rogers stood and motioned towards her.

“I’ll handle this,” Rogers said, eyebrow lifting inquiringly. Fury sighed and gestured with his hand.

“Be my guest. If he truly does have self-confidence issues that extreme, however, he may not be asset. Knowing one’s own worth is part of strength.”

Rogers merely nodded and left.

“So any _actual_ business, or can I fucking go now?” Stark asked, snapping his bubble. Fury dropped his face into his hand.

 

Seijuuro jogged through the overly complicated corridors and pathways of the Initiative complex. Fury had taken Stark’s carte blanche and run _wild_ with it, apparently. Jogging past yet one more bank of giant windows, Seijuuro almost missed the tiny, crumpled figure by the wall. Sunlight was streaming through so brightly, it hid Kobayakawa-Parker more effectively than shadows. Seijuuro closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, exhaling slowly. This kind of situation was almost hard for him, _words_ were hard. Actions were so much easier. But he had no actions to make here. Only words, the right ones, were wanted. Squaring his shoulders, he opened his eyes and made his way towards the teenager curled around his own knees.

“I w-wish you w-wouldn’t,” Kobayakawa-Parker whispered.

Seijuuro sat down next to him anyway. “I think you need someone to. Would you prefer Dr. Banner? Or one of the Maximoffs? You seem to be… friendly with them.”

“No. No, I don’t have a preference.” His sad, weary words were muffled into the thick fabric of his jeans.

Silence blanketed them. Silence Seijuuro could do. He stretched out a leg in front of him and propped up his arm on the opposite knee. He kept it the leg further from Kobayakawa-Parker, trying to say, with body language, he wasn’t closed off from the younger boy. Man. Seijuuro couldn’t tell yet just what Kobayakawa-Parker was.

“When I first joined the SHIELD program, I was a scrawny half-Jap and it was World War II. I was small, but scrappy and _desperate_ to prove my loyalty to America,” Seijuuro intoned slowly. Kobayakawa-Parker’s head tilted, brown eyes peeking up at him. “My father, the _real_ American, he was a bastard.”

Kobayakawa-Parker gasped quietly.

“They don’t say it in the museum, I’ve been there. So odd,” Seijuuro’s mouth screwed up in remembrance. “But he was. He was a giant bully. He beat my mother, and he beat me. And when Japan joined the Axis, he beat us more. And then threw us out. Kids would throw rocks at me, and the school pushed out. I was a Jap. An enemy. At barely sixteen, I was desperate to prove my mother and me were _American_ , we were _loyal_. I thought, if I could get enlisted, I could protect her. But I was young, and small, and had a whole bunch of health problems. And half-Japanese. No one would let me enlist.”

“But then SHIELD found you,” Kobayakawa-Parker said quietly. Seijuuro nodded.

“Yes, they found me. Dr. Erskine, actually. Not surprised you didn’t remember his name-”

“Dr. Abraham Erskine.”

Seijuuro blinked down at Kobayakawa-Parker. His cheeks pinkened and his gaze skittered away.

“I went there a lot.”

“Hn.”

“What next?” Kobayakawa-Parker prompted after a long pause.

“I became Captain America and all the rest is easy enough to look up. But you wanna know something they never talk about?”

Expectant quiet.

“My mother was sent to an internment camp while I was abroad. By the time my superiors learned of it, it was too late. She’d never been very strong, my mother. Shoved together in a dirty bunk with too many people and too few supplies… she died of complications of pneumonia within a month.”

“Captain… R-Rogers-”

“Don’t. Don’t call me that,” Seijuuro spat angrily. He ran a trembling hand over his face as Kobayakawa-Parker gaped at him. “That’s my father’s name. Stephen. Stephen Rogers. I’m Stephen Rogers, Junior.”

“I didn’t know that. Everyone calls you Steve.”

“I know. I hate it, but it… it’s better than letting them know what I call myself. What my mother named me in Japanese. The only other people who knew my name other than my mother… one died. I thought he died… I guess he’s still as good as dead,” he murmured, eyes closed and head tipped back. “The other I’m watching die slowly.”

Kobayakawa-Parker bit down on his lip, staring down at his knees.

“So… should I just call you Captain? Would you like that best?”

“I’d prefer you calling me Seijuuro.”

“Sei-Seijuuro? That’s Japanese! Just like mine! Why would you-” Kobayakawa-Parker exclaimed, body finally unwinding and eyes wide and animated.

“Because you remind me of my best friend. I’ve only ever had two. Both believed in me more than I ever thought they should. I never felt like I deserved that respect. I never thought I could measure up to the hero they saw in me. And well, we half-Japanese should stick together, don’t you think?”

Kobayakawa-Parker's mouth twitched into a smile. “Yeah. Here, lemme show you something.”

He fumbled at his pants and shirt, until he pulled out two cards. They looked like baseball cards, until he saw his own face and his terrible, gaudy old uniform of the forties.

“You have these things, too?” Seijuuro blurted in dismay. Kobayakawa-Parker burst into laughter.

“I’ve never seen you look so embarrassed. Yeah, they were a gift, actually. Both of my parents were Japanese, though my dad was half, like you. He grew up in Brooklyn, went to MIT, and then traveled all the way back to Japanese for graduate school. My mom grew up in Japan. And both of them _loved_ stories about Captain America. My mother dreamed about it, coming to America, living the American Dream, being a hero like Captain America, who proved you don’t have to be a blonde haired white guy to be _American_ , to be a symbol of _freedom_. That’s what madeAmerica so great. To my mom and dad, I mean. Cuz my dad, he felt the same. He got picked on a lot for being a ‘Jap’, a lot of other mean names. When they met in Japan, and they saw they both had Captain America cards, that they both carried around everywhere for luck… My dad said it was like love at first collector’s card,” Kobayakawa-Parker laughed and lovingly traced his finger along the edges.

“I…I still think it’s odd to hear I inspire people like that,” Seijuuro muttered, glancing away. Kobayakawa-Parker leaned forward and his jaw dropped comically.

“ _You’re blushing! You!_ How could Captain America be embarrassed or surprised about this! You’re _Captain friggin’ America!_ ”

“How come you don’t think you can sit a room of your peers, any room and any peers, and believe yourself equal to them,” Seijuuro shot back. Kobayakawa-Parker jerked away, eyes widening in surprise and hurt. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”

“No, you’re right. I don’t… I don’t think I’m equal. I guess, I’m getting to that. Cuz, well, my parents died. Years ago. I was only… six? Or seven? They gave these cards just a few weeks before they died. I thought I was stupid, because schoolwork was so hard. My teachers would look at me, _disappointed_ , talking about how my parents were geniuses and how I was nothing like them. So I came home crying. I’d never seen my mom so _angry_. But my dad sat us down, and showed me their cards and told me the story for like the thousandth time. And then he gave me his, and my mom did. And said it was my turn to believe I could be a hero, too. I just had to believe in myself and I could do anything. Just like Captain America, the half-Japanese hero of World War II,” Kobayakawa-Parker narrated, watery smile wobbling. “And then they died. And I flunked outta my fancy private school. And flunked outta my year, too. I’m already almost twenty, yanno? Because I got _held back_ a year. I let them down for _years_. And then I went on this school trip, and I got all wigged out cuz the spiders were _creepy_ , right, and I left to go calm down.

“And then this gross, ugly spider just crawls right on up my hand and,” Kobayakawa-Parker broke off and gestured sweepingly with his hand. “Suddenly, I was Spiderman. I mean, I messed up a lot and… and people got hurt…got _dead_ ,” his voice trailed away into nothing. After a few moments, he cleared his throat. “I’ve tried _so hard_ to be a hero, to work harder in school, to be _better_ for mom and dad and… and _Uncle Ben_. I can’t… I can’t sit at that table and feel like I’m _done_ trying. Does that make sense?”

Brown shining eyes met Seijuuro’s. They were desperate and familiar. So like the eyes of the sixteen year old sporting a shiner and frown as he failed yet another enlistment physical.

“Sitting at that table isn’t an end, Spiderman. It’s just a beginning. This way… you won’t be trying alone anymore,” Seijuuro replied softly.

Kobayakawa-Parker blinked rapidly, mouth parting and trembling.

“I… I would like it… having friends,” he confessed, blushing heating his face.

“I’ll be your friend,” Seijuuro offered gruffly, his ears and neck uncomfortable.

He grunted in surprise as Kobayakawa-Parker threw his arms around him, squeezing tightly enough to have Seijuuro gasping.

“Thank you, Captain… Thank you, _Seijuuro_.”

“You’re welcome… Sena.”

The embrace tightened and Seijuuro slowly, awkwardly, wrapped an arm around trembling shoulders. They seemed so narrow, but like this, Seijuuro could feel how broad and strong they were. And how much stronger they would become. 

**Author's Note:**

> PAA: Hollow telegramming pixies = hologram pixels looool; and I TOTES made up Seijuuro's super hearing. No idea if Cap can do that. But, to be honest, it's a pretty difficult skill to use. He has to block out all other senses as well as anything beyond the target of what he wants to hear (so, inside the room, but he can't hear anything coming up behind him in the hallway).
> 
> Cast-   
> Shin – Captain America  
> Sena - Spiderman  
> Mamori – Hulk   
> Monta – Ant Man  
> Hiruma – Iron Man  
> Suzuna – Scarlet Witch  
> Riku – Quicksilver  
> Panther - Thor  
> Yamato – Hawkeye  
> Karin – Black Widow  
> Takami – Director Fury  
> Yukimitsu – Agent Coulson  
> Wakana – Agent Hill  
> Kurita – Pepper Potts (lol)  
> Sakuraba – Buchanan “Bucky” Sakuraba  
> Musashi – Rhodes  
> Juumonji – Falcon 
> 
>  
> 
> Doc Oc- Atsushi Munakata (post-chapter)  
> Mysterio – Marco  
> Sandman - Banba (pre-chapter)  
> Electro – Satoshi Muro  
> Kraven the Hunter - Gaou (pre-chapter)  
> Vulture – Sasuke Kanagushi (pre-chapter)
> 
> So some of them may come off kinda OOC, my only excuse is I was trying to mold them into their MCU characters while also trying to keep their important ES characteristics. And YES, Sena was cast as Quicksilver first. But, omgosh, I couldn't make that fit and, seriously, Riku has a much closer personality to QS than Sena does. AND SENA IS THE PERFECT SPIDERMAN. IT IS CANON. SSSSSHHHH!!!! And no, Shin can be no one else other than a grumpy AF Cap America. You cannot convince me of anything else. He was Cap from the very get-go. Monta was the hardest to cast, that dick. But I finally watched Ant Man to get a gist and I was like "Not perfect, but PRETTY GOOD I CAN WORK WITH THIS" and then he barely cameo'd. urgh, damn it Monta! Also, MCU MOVIE VERSE. I HAVE NOT READ THE COMICS AND ONLY VAGUELY RECOLLECT THE CARTOONS. Most of Spiderman's storyline was based on research. A LOT of online research (and fuck the Electro of the movie. Garfield and Stone were so AMAZING, why was everything else SO BAD?).


End file.
